LINGUIST List 9.104

Thu Jan 22 1998

Disc: L2 and dreams

Editor for this issue: Brett Churchill <brettlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Dan I. SLOBIN, Re: 9.76, Disc: L2 and dreams
2. x9705546, Re: 9.90, Disc: L2 and Dreams
3. Dan I. SLOBIN, Re; 9.76, Disc: L2 and dreams
4. KIM DAMMERS, L2 dreams

Message 1: Re: 9.76, Disc: L2 and dreams

Well, I'll add another anecdote, because of the interesting level of 
metalinguistic awareness in dreaming: I dreamed that I was in China, and 
was frustrated that I couldn't have the dream in Chinese, which would 
have made it seem more authentic. So I decided to carry on the dream in 
Russian (in which I am fluent), and had the pleasant double-consciousness 
of the dreamer believing he was carrying on conversations in Chinese, 
along with the lucid dreamer who knew that it was really Russian. I 
distinctly remember real conversations in Russian in that dream, along 
with the belief that they were in Chinese.

Dan Slobin
Dept of Psychology
Univ of Calif, Berkeley

Message 2: Re: 9.90, Disc: L2 and Dreams

> Dr. Frank Crippen ... He told me that he had considerable 
> fluency in something more than 20 languages, but that he
> had only dreamt in about 15 or 16 of them. He said that he
> didn't consider himself really fluent until he had had
> dreams in the language.

A few years ago I was offered a job in a small village in 
French-speaking Switzerland. I had taken French at school, 
O-Level and A-Level, but had had little opportunity or need 
to use it in the intervening seven or eight years, so I was a 
little apprehensive when I packed my bags and traveled 
there. Over the next few months, the language came flooding 
back to me, immersed as I was in French as the primary social 
language. I can distinctly recall, however, coming down to 
work one morning and when asked how I had slept I replied "Oh 
fine, fine. I've started dreaming in French!" My 
colleagues, who despite being Swiss had no second language, 
were both amazed and happy for me. I remember making the 
point to them at the time that one cannot be truly fluent in 
a language unless one dreams in that language.

David N Horn.
Student, University of East Anglia, UK.
D.Hornuea.ac.uk

Well, I'll add another anecdote, because of the interesting level of 
metalinguistic awareness in dreaming: I dreamed that I was in China, and 
was frustrated that I couldn't have the dream in Chinese, which would 
have made it seem more authentic. So I decided to carry on the dream in 
Russian (in which I am fluent), and had the pleasant double-consciousness 
of the dreamer believing he was carrying on conversations in Chinese, 
along with the lucid dreamer who knew that it was really Russian. I 
distinctly remember real conversations in Russian in that dream, along 
with the dreamer's belief that they were in Chinese.

Dan Slobin
Dept of Psychology
Univ of Calif, Berkeley

Here are my anecdotes:

 While furiously trying to learn Latin in an intensive course, I 
started to dream in Latin. I was fluent and also knew the dreaded 
grammar. At first, I was elated. But then one morning I was able write 
down what I had been saying in the latest dream. It was Latin, all 
right -- but it was so bad I probably would have flunked a test with it.

 When I dream, I usually but not always (seem to) dream in the language 
appropriate to the location and/or parties involved. This means that 
some dreams are at least bi-lingual.

 A related? point: Especially when I had not been living in my L2 
country (Germany) very long and really especially when I had to see a 
bureaucrat, I would dress rehearse what I would say before I had a 
conversation. Since then, I have sometimes been back in my mother 
country (USA) and found myself going through the same proce dure 
(sometimes in German, sometimes in English) when I have a "heavy" 
interview coming up. Then I jog myself and say 'Hey, I don't have to do 
this!'

KIM DAMMERS U. Goettingen.